Expert’s Voice: Founder & CEO of COMESOON group, Mr. Chan, on the future of hospitality supply chain
Hotels need to rethink their purchasing approach and embrace digital technology in order to survive and thrive in the post-Covid era, according to Mr. Chan, Founder & CEO of COMESOON group.
What are your experiences within the industry in the past one year?
In the face of a sudden global pandemic that has lasted for a year till now, the hotel industry has also brought some changes.
Accommodation for a trip means that people stay away from their familiar home and come to a fresh environment for a short time. How to make the living star-level of guest room reach 7 stars is the most intuitive feeling to measure the star service of a hotel.
In particular, being forced to be quarantined for 14 days in a hotel must have been an unprecedented life experience for some people, who were stuck only in their hotel room. With the most comfortable bed, the finest supporting bath products, and the first-class meal service are what the hotel guests consider most.
Procurement of these products is the most essential segment, so the quality and cost of material procurement must be optimized. It should be able to achieve strict quality control and optimal cost by means of digital procurement, with the most professional supply chain system in the industry. This is the novel trend that hoteliers will be most concerned about.
So you think the industry will never return to its previous purchasing state?
The change of times are always developing in the direction of the Internet, globalization and digitalization. We do not deny that the science and technology brings changes in our daily life and work.
The original hotel supply chain have some problems and contradictions, such as the material cannot be estimated to plan the purchase, resulting in emergency shortage or excess waste;
The procurement of materials is usually trivial submitted to the purchaser, resulting in the communication process between the purchaser and the supplier is very cumbersome and inefficient;
The Group has no centralized procurement channels in managing the procurement of multiple hotels to reduce the cost of products, logistics, warehousing and personnel, and so on.
The new hotel supply chain system should be to eliminate the old inefficient model. Reducing the operating cost of the hotel and thus giving the better hotel service experience is the primary consideration of the hotel guests itself.
What type of innovation for procurement would be the first you’d recommend?
Hospitality procurement involves many kinds of products supply, so the one-stop supply chain platform can be regarded as an innovative model.
However, the requirements for this platform are extremely high, which requires not only the strong foundation of supply chain, but also the innovation of IT and AI technology.
As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. China does have immeasurable foundation and innovative advantages in building global supply chains. It is indeed not easy for China to adapt the trend of the times to produce the most epoch-making platform products.
Road ahead is long and hard. Let's wait and see.
If you also have any innovative ideas or discussions for future about this press release, it's our great honor to invite you to participate in our Global Procurement Conference.
We have invited some moguls of hotel brands and owners in hospitality industry as special guests.
Waiting for your attendance.
Mr. Mealan Chan
Founder & CEO of COMSOON Group
Following is his Linkedin.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mealan-chan-38041a149/